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When drinking alcohol in normal times, in addition to the words on the wine label, I don't know if you have noticed that there are often some small animals on the bottleneck, the most common of which are the Italian big rooster and the German eagle. If it's a brand logo, they appear on different brands of wine bottles; if it's a wine that wins an award, it doesn't seem like that.
These logos are also diverse, with all kinds of animals and plants, and all kinds of buildings, don't ignore them, they all have specific meanings. What exactly are these? Read on.
01, Eagles
Do you feel familiar when you see this eagle? That's right! It is the eagle with the grapes on its back that frequently appears on various German wines. It is the representative logo of "VDP", which is verband Deutscher Pradikatsweinguter.
The German Prestige Alliance is the oldest national winery alliance in the world. In 1910, the German Union of Natural Wine Auctioneers (VDNV), a combination of four appellations of Rheingau, Mosel, Rheinhessen and Pfalz, was the predecessor of the Union.
Later, VDNV became VDP with the passage of time, and gathered many well-known German wineries, such as Egon Muller, Dr. Loosen, etc. A total of 199 (there are nearly 40,000 wineries in Germany in total), distributed in 13 different wine regions in Germany, they are constantly improving vineyard management and wine quality, hoping to reverse the international reputation of German wines and create High-end German wines.
It is not so easy to become a member of the VDP, compared with the national statutory standards, the VDP standards in the grape maturity, grape varieties, grape selection and other requirements are more stringent. In addition, becoming a member of the VDP is not once and for all, and the association conducts inspections every 5 years, and in the event of non-compliance, the winery may be disqualified.
The VDP classification is independent of the official German grading and is divided into 4 grades based on the quality of the vineyard:
The higher the level, the higher the standard to be achieved, for more information please stamp: Details.
02. Arch
In addition to the eagle on the German wine, there are arches, compared to the domineering eagle, this arch is much more low-key, not paying attention to it can not be seen at all, but low-key does not mean that it is not important, it is one of the most important organizations in the Rhinegar region of Germany - the symbol of the Charter Association (CHARTAR).
Founded in 1984 and merged with the VDP organization in the Rheingau region in 1999, the Charter Association is considered the cradle of high-quality Riesling after World War II. Currently, only 12 wineries in the VDP organization are members of the Charter Association.
The Robert Weil winery, known as one of the "Three Masters of Germany", is one of the members
Wines marked with this small arch on the label must be made only by the best Rieslings in the vineyards, either dry or semi-dry, and cannot be marketed until September of harvest, and must also be blind tested by a review board before marketing. Therefore, the low-key small arch is not easy to come by.
03, black rooster
This majestic black rooster comes from Italy and is the symbol of the Chianti Classico DOCG. Chianti became the first italian wine region to be officially certified in 1716 and is one of the fine wine regions of Tuscany, Italy (details).
The black rooster pattern comes from a legend that in the Middle Ages, the Republic of Florence and the Republic of Siena competed for territory, and Chianti happened to be located between these two republics, so it naturally became a place of contention.
The two republics took a very peaceful approach to fighting for Chianti: they agreed to choose a good day, and after the rooster crowed, each side sent a knight to Chianti, and the place where they met was the border between the two countries. The two sides then chose roosters of different colors, black rooster in the Republic of Florence and white rooster in the Republic of Siena.
On the auspicious day, the Florentines made a little trick to make their black roosters start chirping before dawn, so that the knights sent by Florence could leave early, and eventually, the whole of Chianti was included in the territory of the Florentine Republic, and the black rooster became the local mascot.
Today, the black rooster has become a classic Chianti business card, a guarantee of wine quality.
04, a bunch of grapes
Compared with the rooster or arch in front, this bunch of grapes is much more ordinary, because in the world of wine, of course, there are grapes everywhere
The system of wine quality standards set by the agency, known as the Vintners Quality Alliance, is known as the "strictest in the world", which strictly regulates grape varieties, sugar content, geographical location, label specifications and so on in the legal appellation.
VQA is similar to the EU's wine grading system (French AOC, etc.), and is currently used in only 2 provinces in Canada, Ontario and British Columbia.
Canada is rich in high-quality ice wines, and ice wines that can be certified by VQA are even more top-notch, because VQA has detailed and cumbersome regulations on the grape variety, picking time, picking temperature, sugar content, residual sugar content of the wine, etc. In addition, wines are subject to evaluation by a panel of independent experts before they are launched to meet the criteria to qualify for the VQA logo.
It seems that if you want to print these seemingly fancy logos on the bottle, the winery still has to make a lot of efforts, because they are all signs of high quality, and when you buy wine later, in addition to the words on the wine label that you can't recognize, remember to pay attention to these logos, because they can more intuitively reflect the quality of the wine.